Imagine setting up for a
night of imaging, falling asleep, and then waking in the morning with
images of multiple targets - each autoguided and autofocused.
Your mount is parked and you have darks and flats for all your
images. With a quick glance you confirm that all your images were
guided successfully and your camera temperature was stable throughout
the night. All of this is a reality with CCD Commander.

CCD Commander will control your CCD camera exposures, your
mount movement, and your focuser to completely automate your night's
imaging. CCD Commander allows unlimited combinations of these
different actions to give you full control of your telescope and
camera. The simple to use Graphical User Interface makes these
complex configurations very easy to setup.

CCD Commander allows you to create an imaging session using a number of
different actions. These actions can be setup in any order and
you can have any number of them - allowing for unlimited unattended
imaging possibilities. Some available actions are:

Take an Image

Automatically take any kind of image with a CCDSoft or MaxIm DL controlled camera(s) (guided or unguided & dark, bias, light, or flat).

Automatically find a guide star - adjusting the guide exposure as necessary, or use a guide star at a specified location and start autoguiding with a CCDSoft or MaxIm DL controlled guider (internal or a second camera). This allows unattended guiding while looking anywhere in the sky. A guide star is always visible at the right guide exposure!

Wait for the guide star to reach the specified error before starting the exposures.

Automatically dither the guide star within a user-defined window.

Automatically dither the mount within a user-defined window (when not autoguiding).

Automatically flip a GEM at the meridian, plate solve to match the pre-flip image location, acquire a new guide star, and continue imaging.

Automatically start the flats at the proper time, regardless of what is happening in the current action.

No need to worry if your action list will finish in time for the flats to occur.

Dawn flats can start at Astronomical, Nautical, or Civil Twilight.

"Screen" or "Dome" flats

Flats for every filter taken in any order (RRRGGGBBB, or RGBRGBRGB, or any other).

Once the proper exposure is determined, CCD Commander can either keep the exposure constant across all flats (for one filter) or continuously adjust the exposure to maintain the target ADU.

Run an External Script

Skip to any later point in the action list at any time

Start imaging a target at an exact time, regardless of what was happening before

Start imaging one target, then skip to the next as soon as it becomes visible

Schedule a shutdown at a specific time

Performing Survey work is easy with CCD Commander. Using the built in Import function, you can add nearly unlimited targets to you action list. Simply define the actions you want to perform for each target (like Move to the target and Take an Image), create a target list, and push a button. CCD Commander will automatically create all the actions for each target.

In addition to all of these functions, CCD Commander also has an asynchronous Cloud Monitor that always runs simultaneously to the action list. This Cloud Monitor watches the output from the cloud sensor. As soon as the predefined conditions occur, CCD Commander can pause the action list, park the mount, and/or close the dome - protecting your valuable equipment from the harsh conditions. When the skies clear, CCD Commander can open the dome, slew back to the previous coordinates, and continue your action list with the next action! This provides the ability to image in any kind of condition, without the worry of damaging your equipment or loosing imaging time due to passing clouds. The ultimate in unattended operation!

CCD Commander also creates two plots for easy checking of
your imaging session's performance. The first is a plot of your
guide
errors so you can see if the tracking and guiding performed well.
The second is a plot of the CCD temperature so you can ensure the
cooler maintained your set temperature.

For more details, Take the Tour!Download a fully functional 45 day trial version of CCD Commander here!

You can download the CCD Commander Help file (including screen shots) here.